Crafting Code Podcast

~/podcast

$ cd episodes/013-full-stack-development

~/podcast/episodes/013-full-stack-development $ ls -1a

. .. episode-summary.txt get-mp3.sh

~/podcast/episodes $ cat episode-summary.txt

What does it mean to be a full-stack developer as opposed to front- or back-end? Is anyone really full-stack? Is it a reflection of who you are, or is it more about how your company chooses to operate? Whether or not you have a preference for the part of the stack you work in, there is value to expanding your understanding and collaboration.

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Host introductions. What is "full-stack?" Working across databases, server-side code, and client-side code.

[00:04:22] People tend to have a preference toward either front- or back-end. The types of problems are different; e.g. single-user SPA vs. stateless, multi-tenant API.

[00:10:52] Whether you go full-stack is partly an organizational design question. Companies change over time and there are successful ones on both ends of the spectrum. What do you value?

[00:16:50] Full-stack is about working together as a team, similar to DevOps. Whether you have full-stack developers should depend on your context. If you only know one part of the stack, you don't know how your problem affects the other parts of the stack.

[00:20:19] Should full-stack teams include non-tech roles? Small teams feel effective because of the natural collaboration. How much of each specialty can you put on a team?

[00:25:57] Does Agile scale? What kinds of architectures support independent, self-replicating teams? Company organization reveals how to behave within that company.

[00:32:22] Conway's Law. What are you trying to accomplish? Where do you need to fall on the spectrum of being too generic vs. too specific?

[00:36:23] Try out different parts of the stack to gain experience and learn what you like. Get familiar with the specialties that you regularly integrate with — including non-tech roles.

[00:41:49] The definition of full-stack should also include soft skills. Developers should understand the go-to-market strategy.

[00:44:11] API categorization: create multiple APIs that can change at different rates for different reasons.

[00:48:00] Summary and outro.